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The island of Ireland is often referred to as the 32 counties, with its two states, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, being nicknamed respectively the six counties and the twenty-six counties. The counties are subdivisions of the ancient Provinces of Ireland. While the provinces of which the counties are subdivisions are existed for centuries, the county subdivison of these provinces were first set up in the 19th century by the then government of Ireland to provide a framework for local government.
These counties were subsequently adopted by sporting and cultural organisations such as the Gaelic Athletic Association, which organises its activities on county lines, today they attract strong loyalties, particularly in the sporting field and these "traditional" 32 counties remain in universal use as the basis of local identity and loyalties through the island of Ireland.
Map
Local government The original pattern of 32 counties evolved over many years from the original Norman conquest of Ireland. The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 was a significant milestone in the framing of the counties and their status. Some of the 32 counties are no longer used for local government purposes, although unlike the Counties of England, the Republic's county boundaries essentially remain unaltered (counties are divided or merged for some purposes).
In the Republic of Ireland, six of the original 26 counties have more than one local authority area, producing a total of 34 "county-level" authorities. County Tipperary has been split into North Tipperary and South Tipperary since 1898 and the formal adoption of the county system for local government. In 1992 County Dublin was split into Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, and South Dublin for the purposes of local government. Rural districts were abolished in the early years of the Irish Free State.
In Northern Ireland, a major re-organisation of local government in 1973 replaced the six traditional counties and two county boroughs (Belfast and Derry) by 26 "single-tier" districts, which cross the traditional county boundaries. The six counties and two county-boroughs remain in use for purposes such as Lieutenancy.
Administration Generally administration follows the 34 "county-level" counties and cities of Ireland. The counties are referred to as "county councils" and 29 fall into this category. The cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford have "city councils", previously as "corporations", and are administered separately from the counties bearing those names. The City of Kilkenny is the only city in the republic which does not have a "city council"; it is still a borough but not a county borough and is administered as part of County Kilkenny.
Education The Vocational Education Committee system is based on the traditional counties of the Republic of Ireland except that County Tipperary is separated into North Tipperary and South Tipperary. Also each of the cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford have their own committee separate from the county. Dún Laoghaire is unique in that it is the only town with a committee.
The Institute of Technology system was organised on the committee areas or "functional areas", these still remain legal but are not as important as originally envisioned as the institutes are now more national in character and are only really applied today when selecting governing councils, similarily Dublin Institute of Technology was originally a group of several colleges of the City of Dublin committee.
Elections General election areas in the Republic of Ireland also mostly follow county boundaries - called "constituencies" in accordance with Irish law - maintaining links to the county system is a mandatory consideration in the re-organisation of constituency boundaries. This system usually results in more populated counties having several constituencies - while others, such as Sligo and Leitrim, constitute a single constituency of two counties - Dublin city and county is subdivded into twelve constituencies. Local councillors, elected to local government, are based on similar boundaries to the general election areas, however councillors generally run in a particular town council or borough council area which may often encompasses several smaller towns and villages.
Alphabetical list
Former counties Former counties include: County Coleraine which formed the basis of County Londonderry, and Nether and Upper Tyrone which were merged at that time; County Desmond which was split between Counties Cork and Kerry; and the County of Caterlaugh occupying the southern part of what is now County Wicklow.
See also
External links - Central Statistics Office - 2002 census results (http://www.cso.ie/principalstats/cenpop.html)
- Flags of Ireland - includes county flags (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Sparta/1648/flags.htm)
- Flags of the World - Ireland - includes more flags (http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ie.html)
Representatives of local government - Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland (http://www.amai.ie)
- General Council of County Councils (http://www.councillors.ie)
- Local Authority Members Association (http://www.lama.ie)
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